Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Hi all!!

As promised - a New Game to end the year with...

It's designed to be as flexible as possible to help you trim down your TBR for preparation for more which I'm sure you'll be getting for Christmas :)

Rules are:

1. First book must be from the month’s shelf (ie. October’s shelf: paranormal - http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/p...)

2. Go to your book page and choose the top & unique* shelf from the “popular shelves” it’s been listed under.

Example:
If your first book could be 'The Host’ by Stephenie Meyer.

Check the popular shelves on the ‘The Host’ page, go for the first (top) shelf, in this case ‘to-read’ and choose a book from this shelf.

If your second (‘to-read’) book is ‘The Bourne Identity’ by Robert Ludlum, check the ‘popular shelves’ on the book page and go “one shelf down” – in this case: fiction.

The pattern continues…

*If your next ‘shelf’ is a repeat of a previous ‘shelf’ then skip that one and go “one shelf down”.

3. The game finishes when there is no more ‘unique’ shelf for you to choose a book from. So depending on your choices of books, this could either be a very short or very long game.

4. Any books listed on the 'unique' shelf will do

5. Game to start 1 October 2009 and will end:
31 December 2009 or
when there is no more ‘unique’ shelf.

6. In terms of reporting, we'll start a discussion every 2 weeks or so. All we'd require is the number of 'unique' shelves you've read from and if you've finished & which shelf you've finished at.

The object of the game is to get the longest possible list of shelves

Any questions, please post in this discussion.

If you're joining the game, please express your interest the One Shelf Down - Participation List

Just to check when you say unique shelf that's basically one that we haven't read from yet isn't it? And does the paranormal shelf count as our first read shelf?

Two more questions:

Do different ways of spelling/designating shelves count as unique shelves? For example, there are shelves for "chick-lit" "chic-lit" "chicklit" etc. Could I read from all three, or just the first one?

And can it be ANY book that's shelved as such (even if only one person has it shelved that way)?

Sam, yes & yes

Jen B, yes, the different ways of spelling of shelves count as unique shelves and you can read from all three. Any book that's been shelved as such counts even if only 1 person shelved it that way

Fabulous, thanks for clearing that up Karen :-) i can't wait to get started

I think I figured it out - just one question (for now!) - once I make my list, must the books be read in order of listing, or can they be read in any order? Or do I read my first book, then choose and read the next, and so on?

OK, so it was a two-part question!!

BJ Rose wrote: "I think I figured it out - just one question (for now!) - once I make my list, must the books be read in order of listing, or can they be read in any order? Or do I read my first book, then choose ..."

Ooh, good question, BJ Rose.
You can choose books in advance however they must be read in order of the shelves so like the example above, you must read the Bourne Identity after the Host. Hope that makes sense

But we don't have to prechoose books, correct?

It makes sense, Karen - thanks!
So I clicked on the link above for Paranormal and chose Lover Unbound, which I have in my TBRs. Then from the page for LU, I click on the first Popular Shelf, which in that case is To-Read, and choose something from there. So far, so good. Just waiting for October 1st!

I think I get it--first book is Poison Study off the paranormal shelf (for me). Next book will almost always be off the to-read shelf since it is usually first. So. for me it would be The Time Traveler's Wife, then I would go to its page and the top shelf is to-read again, so I would go one shelf down to currently reading and pick a book. Here is where I get confused. If I went one shelf down, and the shelf was paranormal again, then my chain would be over, correct? The idea here is that you can ONLY GO ONE SHELF DOWN to find a unique shelf.

Do I have that right? Sorry for being so slow Karen, but just want to make sure I understand.

This sounds really fun.

You got it, BJ Rose...

Lyn, not quite right, if your next ‘shelf’ is a repeat of a previous ‘shelf’ then skip that one and go “one shelf down”. The game is over when there's no more unique shelf for you to choose a book from :)
Otherwise, the game will end pretty quickly ;)

And you don't have to pre-choose books at all

Sorry for being obtuse, but what I want to clarify is this--if the first "shelf" is not unique, you go one shelf down, but what if that shelf is not unique also?

Lyn wrote: "Sorry for being obtuse, but what I want to clarify is this--if the first "shelf" is not unique, you go one shelf down, but what if that shelf is not unique also? "

then keep going 'one shelf down' til you find one that's 'unique' to you...

That's where I was confused. Thanks for clarifying, Karen. I think I have it now.

Another question, where do we list the shelves we've read from? And do we just give the shelf or the book as well?

I am starting a little late but I am still going to give it a go. My first book is from the Paranormal shelf and is Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning and that book leads me to the "Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Authors" and I picked Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson (which I happen to have)

Once I get to Undead I will look into my next book. :)

Sam wrote: "Another question, where do we list the shelves we've read from? And do we just give the shelf or the book as well?"

I know Karen was planning to create a separate folder for One Shelf Down so that participants, if they would like, can set up their own thread with their plan and their progress through the game. I would say people should list both their shelves and their books. Then others could comment on their books/progress, etc. I'll go create that folder now since I'm sure people have started. Everyone feel free to start your own thread within that folder. Now that I've FINALLY finished the Beach Blanket game I can get started on One Shelf Down with everyone else! :)

Jessica wrote: "I am starting a little late but I am still going to give it a go. My first book is from the Paranormal shelf and is Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning and that book leads me to the "Best..."

Jessica - Just FYI - "Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Authors" is a list, not a shelf. The Shelves are listed on the right side of the page under the heading Popular Shelves, and I believe the first one on the list for this book is "to-read".

Luann - Is the thread the way we are reporting, or is there going to be a separate reporting thread every two weeks are so that just lists number of shelves, first shelf, last shelf, and whether we are still going?

Lyn wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I am starting a little late but I am still going to give it a go. My first book is from the Paranormal shelf and is Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning and that book leads..."

Ohhh... Okay. I didn't realize that. Thanks for letting me know. :)

Just wanted to make sure that you didn't get too far down the wrong path. Hope you are enjoying the challenge.

This has been fun so far! Much more relaxing than the shelf-a-thon! :) I had a quick question, though. I thought I understood and then I wondered when I looked at the popular shelves for my current book. Maybe I'm thinking about this too much and confusing myself, but I thought I'd ask. Right now I'm reading White Sands, Red Menace. Its popular shelves are:

to-read (on 90 people's shelves)
historical-fiction (on 16 people's shelves)
young-adult (on 12 people's shelves)
historical (on 8 people's shelves)
fiction (on 6 people's shelves)
ya (on 4 people's shelves)
historicalfiction (on 4 people's shelves)
currently-reading (on 4 people's shelves)

I'm reading it because it's on the "ya" shelf. Do I go to "ya" and then one shelf down is "historicalfiction" or do I go back to the top and the next unique shelf for me is "historical-fiction"? I've already read from "to-read" and "young-adult."

Luann, I hope this is the correct answer, because it's the way i've been doing it!

Start at the top each time. In this case, your next unique shelf is "historical-fiction"

That's the impression I got, too. This is a fun way to pick your next book, but as a game, I don't see how it could possibly end before the deadline.

I was thinking of it the other way - go one shelf down from the shelf you're reading for that book. I'm glad I asked then, if I'm thinking different from everyone else! I don't think it will mean I need to change the books I've read - yet! :)

A heads up for those of you that planned ahead like I did, I just went to check on my third shelf to see how it was spelled, and the shelves for my second book have changed so that shelf is no longer the "next shelf down". Bummer.

Lyn wrote: "A heads up for those of you that planned ahead like I did, I just went to check on my third shelf to see how it was spelled, and the shelves for my second book have changed so that shelf is no long..."

Thanks, Lyn. I guess it makes sense that shelves may change position as people add books to them, since I've been doing the same thing!

I did plan ahead, but also check back to make sure I chose the correct shelf, not even thinking about shelves moving up or down! I've almost finished my Romance book, so need to go back and check the next shelf down.

I am a newbie to the group, and I love this idea for a challenge. Does everyone start with Paranormal, or do we start with the current month's shelf for the month in which we start? In other words, would I start with Asian, as that's this month's shelf (and which I'm already reading from as part of the monthly challenge), or would I go "back" to October's Paranormal shelf and proceed from there?

Since you're staring the challenge in November, Candiss, start with Asian. And welcome to the group!

Question for you...what happens if you get to the next available shelf, and you have read everything on it? For example, I want to read "I, Alex Cross" for my Crime shelf, but the next available shelf for me will be Alex-Cross, and I have read them all.

Should I just save "I, Alex Cross" for January, or can I read it, skip the Alex-Cross shelf, and go to Suspense-Thriller which I haven't read from yet?

Amy - I'm confused, too. The way that I read the rules, it could go two ways. Either this means that your One Shelf Down chain is finished, or it means you just pick the next shelf after that. I'll be interested to hear Karen's response.

I'm not sure what Karen would say, either. Maybe she'll chime in here when she gets a chance. In the meantime, I do see a couple of other options for you, Amy, in addition to the two Lyn gave. You could either read something else for your crime shelf that would give you a better next shelf for your next book, or you could reread something from the Alex-Cross shelf to fulfill that shelf. Does that help at all?

Luann - I feel silly that I didn't even think of the obvious solutions of reading a different book for the crime shelf, or the re-reading. Good ideas.

I went to the library on Saturday and picked out a different book for the crime shelf, so I guess great minds think alike, Luann...LOL

LOL, Amy. Yep, definitely GMTA. :)

Luann wrote: "I'm not sure what Karen would say, either. Maybe she'll chime in here when she gets a chance. In the meantime, I do see a couple of other options for you, Amy, in addition to the two Lyn gave. You..."

If the goal of the game is to, as Karen said, "help you trim down your TBR", then re-reading a particular book should explicitly not be allowed. If a particular shelf is not in your TBR, you would have to treat that like a shelf which contains no books you own, right?

I mean, Karen also says "So depending on your choices of books, this could either be a very short or very long game." This seems to imply that the only books we read from are those in our existing TBR. If the only books in my current TBR fall under a scarcity of shelves I would finish faster than a person who has books from a larger number of shelves in their TBR, right?

I started too late to get very far in this particular game this time. I want the rules clarified as I may well play this game next time, though. :)

Actually, Steven, there is no requirement that the book comes from your TBR. That is just a side benefit that Karen mentions in her introduction. The actual rules don't require it. You can use new releases, newly voted in group reads, books that you have found that are not on your current TBR. The only actual requirement in the rules are that the shelf used is the next "unique" shelf on the current books list of popular shelves, and that the next book you choose be on that shelf. From that perspective, re-reads are perfectly acceptable, or, as Luann suggested, you can pick a different book on the current shelf that gives you a different list of popular shelves. The only point is to make the longest chain possible in the allotted time without skipping any shelves.

Of course, each person can choose to add personal rules as we do with all challenges, so you can choose to not re-read a book, or read only books with over a certain number of pages, etc.

Excellent. I'll keep this in mind next time the game goes around.

Lyn M wrote: "Actually, Steven, there is no requirement that the book comes from your TBR. That is just a side benefit that Karen mentions in her introduction. The actual rules don't require it. You can use ..."

Beautiful answer, Lyn! Thanks!!